I've lived in Florida almost 30 years now, much of that in the panhandle and along the Gulf Coast. When I originally moved to Pensacola, the day I got there, hurricane Elena (in '85) was taking direct aim at Pensacola ad expected to hit that day. Instead t hooked east, wandered around another day or so, then came back in and hit Pensacola anyway. It was the first hurricane I had been in since Camille in '69. No, I take that back, I went through Bob in Fort Lauderdale while I was at computer school, in '85, just before I moved to Pensacola. That one had crossed over the Florida peninsula from the Gulf to the Atlantic, so going over land it had lost some steam, but it ruined my plans for a weekend on the beach ogling babes.
Anyway, Elena wasn't nearly as strong as Camille, bt a helluva lot strongr than Bob. We were far enough from the waterfront itself that we mainly got wind and rain damage, but I can remember going into town after the storm passed and seeing the damage there. We never failed to prepare, every hurrican season, by storing enough fresh water and food to last at least a couple of weeks, and if a large storm was coming in, we headed inland.
What got me though, living there, was seeing all these homes built out on the barrier islands. Barrier islands are usually long, narrow islands, not very high, that parallel the coastline. Whenever a hurricane came in, some of these homes would get wiped out, like the ones we have now on some of the New Jersey barrier islands. I mean the homes would just be gone, the beaches eroded away, and in some cases barrier islands cut in half because parts of them had completely washed away.
So what happened? The owners raised a hue and cry for federal help to rebuild. Dredges came in and dredged sand from the ocean floor to rebuild the beaches and parts of the islands that had washed away - brought in by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Roads were rebuilt, with state and federal money. And the owners who had been washed away were able to get permits, from the state and county, to rebuild right back on the barier islands, so they could get washed out again in future storms.
It's idiocy.
